Scooby Doo in the Clash of the Gods
by ElGato44
Summary: Scooby, Shaggy, and the gang travel to Iceland to investigate strange attacks by what the locals call a Viking God. Little do they know that supernatural forces are part of the life-blood of the country itself. Meanwhile a strange artifact may curse one of the gang to a terrible fate.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer: Scooby-Doo is owned by Warner Bros./Hannah-Barbara and affiliates. I do not make money off this.**

Prologue:

_-Somewhere in Iceland, 929 AD.-_

The vast plains of rolling hills that graced the newly settled land was marred. Marred and damaged by bloodlust and a thirst. A thirst for power that was settled, tangled in the roots a giant oak tree. Men in iron helmets, fur and steel armor, wielding swords, axes and spears, clashed. They fought hard, thirsty, many meeting painful and violent deaths.

The tree of life, if it truly existed, would have shook with the earth at the coming end times.

The battle was about to reach a destructive precipice, when the dark sky opened up. The warriors stopped, as bright colorful lights streamed across the skies, soft, serene, gentle.

The warriors stared up in awe, their weapons slipping from their hands and onto the ground. Everything, every violence, every hostility, was laid to rest as the warriors were graced with a holy warmth that made even the hardest of men shed tears.

_-Gudireik, Iceland, present day-_

Stannir Evolksson, a tall, robust, but balding man cleaned up his office at the town treasury. He had been working late, closing a huge personal deal with the local landowners. He closed his briefcase, pulled on his jacket, left outside to take the walk through the woods to his home.

He hoped that his wife had cooked up his favorite stew for dinner. It was something he looked forward to. Stannir glanced to his side, he could see the warm lights of the local tavern, _Hringhorni_, through the dense trees. Sometimes he'd stop by for a drink or two from the tavern owner, but not tonight. His wife would worry if he were late.

Stannir pulled the collar of his jacket up to brace against the chill that washed over him. The wind was coming from the west, where he could see the hill that the big old oak stood like a haunting memory of some past. That tree is where this town of Gudireik was founded upon and named after. _God's Oak._

He remembered that his grandmother used to tell him stories of that tree. She called it "Yggdrasil". The Life Tree from the old world myths of the Norse gods. When Stannir was a child, he loved listening to the tales his grandmother told him about fairies, trolls, and gods. The world seem so much more bigger to him. But as Stannir grew older, he came to reject those silly fantasies. The world wasn't run by trolls and fairies. They didn't exist. And certainly the Old Gods didn't exist.

At that moment he heard breathing behind him. Stannir turned around and spotted a man in the shadows. He wasn't moving. Just standing. He couldn't see much of the figure but he could tell that the man was tall, had mangy long hair and was wearing a long dusty jacket. He was holding something shiny in his hand. Long and shiny.

At first Stannir thought it was a gun, but very few people would dare bring their weapons out and about in public. It just wasn't done in this town, or in this country. But whatever it was, glinted gold in the moonlight.

"Yes?" he asked. He backed away as the man stepped forth out of the shadows. In a split second the man roared and charged, tackling Stannir Evolksson to the ground.

To his horror Stannir could see the figure's face. He had long greasy blond hair and was wearing a terrifying clay mask with bulging eyes, a triangle-like nose with what resembled a clay mustache. The man growled and spoke in a language similar to Icelandic, but definitely not entirely the same. Stannir could pick up bits and pieces of Old Norse.

"Let the gods take you, mortal. Justice will prevail!" he brought his hand up and the gold weapon in hand was an axe, raised high and poised to strike.

"Accept your judgment!"

Stannir screamed in horror but was silenced as the figure brought his axe down.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm technically not new to the Scooby fandom as I have loved that show ever since I was a child. _Mystery Incorporated _rekindled that love vehemently and is as of now my favorite iteration of the Scooby universe (but not necessarily the gang themselves. I still go classic Scoobs). But I haven't seen the _What's New? Scooby Doo_ or any movie beyond Cyber Chase, so I'm pretty slow on the uptake. However, this story does take place in the regular Scooby universe. Any way, this will be rated T for now, but I do anticipate some dark themes that may push this to M. For you lovers of Norse culture (no, not counting Marvel's "Norse" culture) I hope this satisfies you. Thank you and _Scoooooby-Dooobie-Dooo!_


	2. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: See the Prologue**

Chapter 1:

The Mystery Machine shook and jerked as it streamed across the barely finished roads. Scooby Doo was in the back of the van with his pal Shaggy, who was wearing a light jacket. The whole gang were wearing winter clothes to combat the chill with Velma and Fred wearing wool caps over their heads.

"You know, like, for a place called Iceland, it's not as cold as I thought it be," Shaggy laughed in his throat. His dog, Scooby snickered, "Rah. Rot ras rold."

"Iceland is a bit of a misnomer," Velma said with a smile. "Actually it is quite green. Ironically, Greenland is full of ice."

Daphne turned around in her seat next to Fred and asked her best girlfriend, "It was nice for your friend to invite us over."

Velma practically beamed, "Dr. Brudell is a true genius in geology and archeology. He's nice too. A true gentleman, even if we've only spoken through FaceType."

Daphne was the first to flash a wry smile. The boys in the van wouldn't get it, "Geez Velma, sounds like you're in love."

Being skeptical but shy, Velma scoffed at the idea, "Yeah, right. We've only talked through the internet. That can't be love."

"Whatever you say."

Fred squinted at the signs on the road ahead, the majority unpronounceable. To him it was like someone shook up a bunch of scrabble pieces and threw them on the ground to see what words they could make. It confused him to no end.

"Hey, Velm, do you have any clue as to where we are going? I can't make heads or tails of these…places."

"We're on the right track, Fred. Just in case I'll give Dr. Brudell a call," Velma seemed all too eager to pull out her cell phone and speed dial her friend.

The gang could hear Velma practically gush as she spoke, but she still managed to keep her tone professional, "Hello? Dr. Brudell? It's me Velma. We just want to make sure we're going to the right way."

Velma paused and reached over the back seat, "Hold on. Hey gang, Dr. Brudell is going on speaker." She pressed a button on her phone and a male's voice spoke over the speaker.

"Hey, guys."

"Hi Dr. Brudell," the gang said in unison.

"So, where are we now?"

"We just passed Hygbo….er….Hydag…um…" Fred stumbled over his words, having no clue as to how to pronounce the city sign.

"Hygbronir," Velma murmured, "It's better to just say it. Not read it."

Dr. Brunell could be heard chuckling, "Alright, good. Keep on going until you reach Yirddtropsdir County. Then you turn off route 27 onto route 84. Go straight until you cross Trollssvandir—a bridge—and go through the town of Gudireik. I'm stationed twenty miles outside that town."

Fred blinked. There was no way he could follow all of that. "Umm…yeah."

"Don't worry, Fred. I got all of that," Velma said before turning to her phone, "Thanks, Dr. Brudell. We won't be long."

Velma turned off the speaker phone to talk more to her friend, while Scooby pointed to the vast field of green, more specifically to the long haired sheep littering the beautiful plains.

"Like, talk about sheep with dreads!" Shaggy laughed.

"Rah, Raggy Reep," Scooby snickered.

"Shaggy Sheep? Ha! Good one Scoob!"

Normally, as the others playfully chatted, Fred and Daphne would chat too, but they were quiet, only speaking to their friends, but rarely directly to each other. No one seemed to notice. It was hard too when they all were together. Perhaps Daphne felt the silence a little more than Fred, but occasionally she would spot the hardening of his strong jaw that she knew meant something was on his mind.

If what he was thinking was also what she was wondering then there was no doubt this would be a long, long trip.

"So," Daphne sighed, "Velma, what does you internet boyfriend do exactly?"

Velma went beat red shutting her phone off just in time for Dr. Marcus Brudell to not hear Daphne's question.

"He's not my boyfriend!" she cried out in exasperation, getting more ticked since Scooby and Shaggy were snickering. "Dr. Brudell is studying _Eyjafjallajökull."_

"Hey man, is that like some sort of dance move or something? Because that is some freaky word," Shaggy said.

"No," Velma answered with every ounce of patience, "_Eyjafjallajökull _is a glacier in Iceland that has a large volcano. Dr. Brudell is studying the volcanic activity."

Scooby and Shaggy immediately clutched each other, trembling.

"Like, Zoinks! A volcano!"

Velma nodded, "Iceland is almost made up completely of volcanic rock."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

Velma wasn't exactly looking for a way to make Shaggy feel better. Volcanos were unpredictable, especially the one here, but geology scientists, like Dr. Brudell came up with ways to predict possible eruptions, so that things would be safer. Velma pointed out the window of the Mystery Machine, "See all that green, fertile land?"

"Rah," Scooby swallowed, still a little shaken by the knowledge that they were on a volcano.

"The soil and ash from the volcano is quite rich, which is why we see a lot of green and plant life."

"Jeepers, Velma. You're like a walking nature special," Daphne joked. "Is there anything you don't know?"

Velma blushed and shrugged, "Well, to be completely honest, that's another reason why I really wanted to come here. I know nothing about Iceland or Nordic culture. Most of the ghouls and goblins we've encountered were either Egyptian, Continental European, American, or South American. I never thought studying Nordic history would give me much. I guess I was proven wrong."

With a hefty sigh, Velma pulled out her laptop and began doing a preliminary search, "As I was getting a grasp on the Icelandic language, I did find that the Nordic culture is full of mysterious legends and myths. Fairies, elves, giants, trolls…"

"Trolls!?" Shaggy and Scooby cried out in unison.

"Man, Velma, that doesn't sound like the supernatural. That just sounds like a Tolkien novel," Fred said, taking a quick glance through his rear-view mirror.

"Actually Fred, J.R.R Tolkien's inspiration for most of his books come from Nordic folktales and myths."

All eyes were on her. She had crossed some line in worldly knowledge and she knew that she should probably stop. "Sorry."

They found the turn pike and crossed a ridge around a jagged green hill, that circled around an easy lake. It seemed so surreal, so mystical, as if the gang had in fact entered Middle Earth.

The road became bumpy and unruly, as the paved roads turned into dirt and rock. The gang jerked and jumbled. Shaggy and Scooby got the brunt of the force as they were without seatbelts.

"Hang on tight gang!" Fred called over the clanking of the Mystery Machine's wheels. "I'll try to keep this as gentle as I can."

"Then don't drive so fast, Fred!" Daphne cried out. It sounded distinctly like a scolding, though it wasn't intentional. All the tension between them slipped out.

"Give me a break, woman. I'm doing my best," Fred ground back after a particularly torrid jerk. By now, the sunny clear skies faded to grey with a light mist. It was enough for a light fog to roll over. Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby gave a quick glance at each other at Daphne and Fred's brief spat. To them…something seemed off.

All thoughts on Daphne and Fred were gone when they reached a bridge—Trollssvandir. It was a wooden bridge over a small creek, but thankfully the planks smoothed out the ride for the Mystery Machine.

Shaggy rubbed his sore and bruised rump, "Ugh, like, let's hope for a smoother ride."

"We'll be fine," Fred replied without his usual pleasant tone. "We just need to make it through this fog."

He flicked on his low beams to better see through the fog, but the dense trees made it even more difficult to see. The beauty that graced the countryside turned into something creepy.

"Like, it looks like we crossed into Mordor," Shaggy half joked. "I swear, Fred, if I see a glowy eye anywhere in the sky, I'm, like, jumping."

"Rah. No Shauron."

Velma rolled her eyes. The _Lord of the Rings _jokes were getting to be a bit too much. Fred glanced out his side window, looking through the dense and dark trees. He could see black ravens flitting about in the branches. That had to be some sort of bad omen.

"Freddie! Watch the road!" Daphne yelled.

Fred was about to yell back when he saw a big horned elk prancing across the road. Fred jerked the wheel, a scream dying in his throat. The Mystery Machine swerved out of the way of the large animal, but spun, hitting a fallen tree limb. The brightly painted van tilted and broke the guard rail, the crashing and crunching as the van tumbled down and down into a ditch. Throwing a few of its passengers out on the grass. When the van finally settled, every member of Mystery Incorporated were knocked completely out of consciousness.

* * *

><p>Pain pounded through Daphne's head as she barely managed to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry, but all she could see was a warm white light. A beautiful warm light. Was she dead? She had heard from Velma that most people experience this white light vision right as they die. If that were true, she didn't much care. The light was…comforting and the pain running through her entire body seemed to fade away.<p>

Then a silhouetted figure appeared before her, the warm light making it hard to see its features. She tried desperately to ask what was happening. What it was. If she was dead.

Her vision faded to black.

* * *

><p>When Daphne regained complete consciousness she found herself on a soft bed in an unidentifiable room. The room itself was small, with a closet, a dresser and a separate door that led to what was most likely a restroom. Across from her was a chimney with an empty fireplace.<p>

Most of the room revealed that it was either a hotel or motel room, but some of the accessories, such as the gaudy wallpaper, the window blinds, and the flowers in pots on the dresser and nightstand gave it a much more homey feel.

As she sat up, she realized her pain had vanished. Or at least diminished to an ache in her neck and back. Daphne felt something high on her forehead and rubbing the spot she felt something like thin plastic. Fumbling out of bed she took a quick glance at herself in the mirror.

She looked shaken up with a big band-aid on her forehead near her temple and normally she would've panicked at her less than perfect state, but she had bigger priorities. Like finding out where she was.

Daphne took a glance around the room to gain any clues. The rather rustic looking room didn't provide much, but taking a quick glance out the window she could see the peaks of a small mountain over a grove of tall trees and an expanse of the green grass.

A smile graced her lips at the sight. It was, indeed, beautiful, despite the grey of the sky that was clearing up slightly.

Daphne turned abruptly when she heard a voice speak quickly outside in a language she didn't understand. The door opened, revealing a woman. The woman was a little on the plump side, but her height made up for the weight. She had a round face, and gold-red locks braided and tied up in a knot.

"_Ó! Thú ert vakandi!" _she beamed.

Daphne didn't understand a word she had said, "Er…I'm sorry?"

"Oh! My apologies," the woman said in English. "How could I be silly and forget you are American. Do you feel alright? You lot took a nasty turn off Trollssvandir. Found all of you knocked straight out of your minds."

The woman seemed excited, or just incredibly charming, her smile warm as dimples appeared on her lightly freckled cheeks. Daphne gave the jolly woman a cautious smile, rubbing the band-aid on her head, "I think I'm okay, but where am I?"

"_Hringhorni_ _Tavern_ of Gudireik. It was closer to get you here instead of the hospital."

_Gudireik_. Wasn't that the town Dr. Brudell mentioned?

"You sure you're okay?"

"I am, Ms...umm…"

"Oh, call me Sigi," the woman giggled a bit, "Come on down whenever you are ready. Your friends will be happy to see you well."

Daphne gave out a weak, "Yeah sure," before Sigi disappeared out of her doorway.

When Daphne manage to make herself look at least a little more presentable she made her way down the creaky wooden steps from the rooms into the main area of the tavern. It was pretty empty, with a bar and wooden tables and chairs. It was the middle of the day, so it would make sense that there would be very little in terms of patronage.

As she slowly stepped down the last of the steps, she could see the rustic surroundings with antique photographs and deer antlers hanging on the walls. She could hear people talking, mostly in English.

Tucked into one corner of the tavern at a round wooden table sat Velma, who was nursing a bandaged wrist. Scooby was on the floor at her feet, his right front leg also wrapped up in bandages.

Two men and Sigi were sitting with her. When Velma saw Daphne, she shot up from her seat, "Daphne! Thank goodness you're alright."

On cue Scooby perked up, "Raphne!"

"Good to see you both okay. Especially you Scooby," she patted the Great Dane on the head, which was greatly appreciated. She glanced over at the two men. One was a tall gentleman in his thirty's wearing a plaid work shirt. He had long strawberry blond hair tied back at the back of his neck, and scruffy whiskers on his jaw and upper lip.

The other man was thin with a narrow, gaunt, streamlined face with cow-licked black hair, a big black over coat hanging over his thin body. He held a partially lit cigarillo between his fingers, his lips up-turned in a perpetual sly smirk.

She ignored the two men and asked her friend, "Where's Shaggy and Fred?"

"Shaggy went to buy some snacks at the convenience store. And Fred's still resting I gather. He was pretty banged up after the crash, but he'll be okay."

"And we can be thankful for that," the man with long hair said, he held out his hand to Daphne, "Sorry for the delay in introductions. I'm Magnus Baldrsson, chieftain of this village."

As Daphne shook the man's hand, Velma asked, her brow furrowed in confusion, "Chieftain?"

Sigi nodded, "Of course. The head of the village. Oh, how do you say it in English. Oh yes. A mayor. He's what you Americans would call a Mayor of this village."

"Mayor?" Daphne repeated giving Magnus a once over. In her experience with her town, the mayor was always sharply dressed and clean and usually a man in his forties-to-mid-fifties with a huge enough ego to think that he was always the best thing that the town needed.

Magnus Baldrsson wasn't dressed any of the sort. Sure he could be seen as handsome in the rugged sense, but he was not the clean and quaffed ideal of what Daphne and Velma were used to whenever they interacted with mayors. He looked like an ordinary man and still pretty young to be entering in politics.

"Fascinating," Daphne heard Velma murmur under her breath.

Mangus pointed to the dark haired man with the cigarillo, "This is Laufey Laevateinn. He's police captain here and he'll need to ask some questions."

Laufey chortled, "No thank you, boy. It's pretty clear. They got into trouble with the fog and ended up in a crumbled mess in a ditch."

"Aoy! You're all lucky you made it with just the injuries you got there. Draupnus said the lot of you were clean out of the van," Sigi commented pouring what looked like hot tea.

"Draupnus?" Velma asked, "Who's he?"

"Owner of this tavern," Laufey replied taking a small drag of his cigarillo, "He found you lot in the ditch and brought you here. Carried that _hundur _and Ms. Dinkley here over his shoulders before getting the rest of you. He and Sigi patched you up."

"Runder?" Scooby asked, ears perked high.

"It means 'dog' in Icelandic, Scooby," Velma clarified, withholding a laugh.

"Rog? Where?"

"Well…" Daphne paused. "Perhaps we should like to thank this Draupnus then."

Lightly rolling his black eyes, Laufey scoffed, "He and the town mechanic are bringing your gaudy painted rust bucket back into town to be fixed."

Scooby visibly frowned at the insult to the Mystery Machine. Good thing Fred wasn't here to hear that. He'd have a fit. Daphne crossed her arms and glared at Laufey in disapproval in Fred's stead.

Sigi placed a mug of hot tea in front of Daphne, "I swear that man would rip his spine out if he thought it would help someone. He was worried something bad could've happened."

Magnus ran a weary hand over his face, "With these attacks going around, even the roads are dangerous in broad daylight."

Daphne glanced over at Velma. At this point, one look, just one look was a clear indication that they were going to stick around longer than they had originally planned. With a heavy sigh, Velma asked, "What sort of attacks?"

"A crazy, axe-wielding madman," Magnus replied, looking decidedly distraught over the prospect as he scratched his beard.

Before Magnus could get into more detail, Shaggy burst into the tavern with a paper bag full of snacks. He had a small band-aid on his chin, but otherwise looked okay after the Mystery Machine crash.

"Like, hey, that fiy—yarrrkarp—"

"General store," Velma interjected.

"Right, that general store isn't half bad. Hey even got fifteen bags of Swedish Fish candies. Imagine that," Shaggy paused, frowning as he recognized the look on his friends' faces, more specifically Scooby. That look on his old pal's face told him that something creepy was happening and that only meant one thing…

"Ohhhhh boy. What now?"

Velma and Daphne created space for Shaggy, who looked unpleased with the prospect that they may be dragged into yet another mystery. Good gracious, they can't spit without fumbling onto some horrendous mystery. By now he was both unsettled and so used to it, he didn't seem as phased as he would have.

"They call him 'Forseti'," Sigi answered with a tinge of awe, reverence and fear.

Velma of course asked, "Why?"

"It's because the attacker supposedly wields a golden axe, spouting nonsense about judgment and whatnot," Laufey replied with every air of annoyance and skepticism. "The locals named him 'Forseti' after the Norse God of Justice. It just sounds like some loon trying to scare people."

Sigi shook her head, "Loon, god, or neither. It stopped being a silly prank after he sent Stannir Evolksson to the emergency room. The man could've been killed."

Laufey glared at the kindly woman, "Ha! The man was concussed. If we were dealing with a vengeful god, Stannir's head would not be attached to his body."

"Speaking of which, nice job investigating the matter, _police captain _Laevateinn," she shot back, her voice dripping with sarcasm, causing Laufey to flinch and glare back at the woman.

Velma stood up and calmly tried to prevent the two from getting further into the argument, "Hold on. How many people has this 'Viking God' attacked?"

"A few people," Magnus grumbled, rubbing his temples, "Mostly people within some sort of community position. A cleric, a city planner, and now the treasurer."

Laufey laughed in his throat, not a pleasant sound, "Chief Baldrsson's afraid he's next."

"This is no laughing matter," Sigi retorted, before her voice softened as she turned to the guests of the tavern, "Forgive all of us. We are just a little jumpy."

"W-within good reason," Shaggy chattered, his teeth sawing on the Swedish Fish.

The wood of the stairs creaked as another body descended the steps into the main tavern area. Fred appeared, groaning lightly and rubbing his head. Daphne's jaw clenched as she noticed three deep scratches across his left brow, a darkened and scabbed lower lip where it used to be bleeding and a thick bandage was wrapped around his damaged right hand.

His eyes looked foggy and he was still recovering from a head injury. Daphne couldn't help but have a worried feeling in her gut seeing Fred injured. Regardless, Velma was right. Fred looked to be okay.

"Glad everyone's okay," Fred said, his dark eyebrows shooting up to his forehead.

Velma laughed a loud, "You've arrived on time, Fred. I was about to do the 'Gang, looks like we've got a mystery on our hands' announcement for you."

Fred shook his head in mild bemusement, "Of course we do."

Everyone filed Fred in on everything. Who the people were, what happened, and the apparent mystery in this town of Gudireik.

* * *

><p><em>Ó! Thú ert vakandi!-<em>Oh! You're awake!

**A/N: Please review if you like the direction -or not (though at this point its set up pretty standard).**


End file.
